Don’t tell me you’ve never seen it. I know I have. In fact I have learned that if someone goes out of their way to tell me that they are a Christian when we are considering doing a business deal together, it is probably a good idea for me to increase my level of caution.

Through some hard-knock experiences, I have learned that if I couldn’t detect a person’s relationship with the Lord BEFORE they told me they had a relationship with the Lord, there is a very good chance that their Christianity is not translating into outward behavior.

Now most people look at someone’s outward behavior and make a judgment of a person’s Christianity based on their outward behavior. And so they would write off a person who claims to be a Christian but doesn’t ACT like a Christian as a fake or a liar.

But shockingly, the Bible doesn’t set this same kind of standard for determining whether or not a person’s Christianity is genuine.

Is it possible to still be a skunk and yet be a real born-again Christian? YES!

Paul tells us here that there are two types of REAL Christians. He calls them “spiritual” and “carnal.”

Both the spiritual Christian and the carnal Christian are on their way to heaven. They are both born-again. They are both new creations in Christ. In their spirits they are both perfect and righteous.

But in their flesh, that is, in their outward behavior, one shows the evidence of their relationship with God and one doesn’t.

Now this isn’t the way I like to judge things. I generally make a judgment that is based on the evidence that my five senses present to me. But the problem with judging by this standard is that I can’t see a person’s heart.

And here in this passage, we are presented with an instance where Paul calls a group of people “Christians” (or more specifically “Brothers,”) when they aren’t acting like Christians.

If you read the entire letter that we call First Corinthians, this group of people, a local church, is displaying some atrocious behavior. There are cliques, sectarianism, lawsuits, sexual sin, drunkenness, gluttony, and treating poor Christians with disdain. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

In fact, it was so bad that Satan was able to use some of their behavior to make them sick and feeble, or even kill them off prematurely.

But throughout the letter, Paul never wavers from considering them all to be 100% born-again brothers and sisters in the Lord. Believe it or not their behavior did NOT disqualify them from their status of being IN Christ.

Now this state of affairs is certainly not ideal. The carnal Christian shows no outward evidence of their conversion. The word “carnal” simply means “of the flesh.” Their attention is not on the things of God. It is still on themselves.

Paul calls carnal Christians “babes” (babies). Now when babies are conceived, they are 100% human beings. They don’t have some quasi-human status, despite what the murderous abortion industry will tell you. They are FULLY HUMAN.

But nobody would claim that babies are productive members of the human race. They are certainly cute, but they demand a huge amount of attention. They are totally and completely self-centered. And if they don’t get what they need, they will make everyone else around them pretty miserable.

Paul says that carnal Christians are exactly the same way. Babies. Self-centered. And yet fully Christian!!

The goal is to get every Christian to grow up and become spiritual. Becoming spiritual is also described as DISCIPLESHIP. But it is not the discipleship that produces the Christianity.

It is Christianity that begins with the born-again experience that will produce discipleship (an outwardly spiritual life that reflects the true nature of God).

And so here is the bottom line: We cannot judge a person’s status with God based on their behavior. We can only judge them on their claim to be born-again.

And if they claim to be born-again, then we should love them like a brother.

Will you need grace for that? ABSOLUTELY! But fortunately for you, God has more grace than you need fully available to you.

You can love the skunk! Even while exercising a level of precaution around them.

And if you love them, you will keep presenting them with the truth. After all, it’s the truth that they know that has the power to set them free from being carnal.

It isn’t your behavior that will get you to heaven. Rather, it’s who you know. YOU MUST BE BORN-AGAIN!

And that’s Good News!